Brilliant, Nefarious Journalist Tries to FOIA Obama’s Game of Thrones Screeners
The first thing you have to know is that nobody—and we mean nobody—gets advance screeners for the sixth season of Game of Thrones. In the annals of protected television episodes, this one is near the top, and the journalists and industry types who typically get a sneak peak are out of luck this time. If you’re not in the rarefied inner circles of the show’s producers and editors, you will not see anything before the show premieres this Sunday on HBO.
With one exception (I guess we didn’t actually mean “nobody”): President Barack Obama. At a Game of Thrones event in Hollywood last week, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss made it clear that when the most powerful man on the planet asks to see advance episodes—which he did—you don’t say no:
“I think, for both of us, finding out the President wanted advanced copies of the episodes was an ‘ah-ha’ moment,” Weiss said. “That was a very strange moment.”
“Yes,” Weiss replied. “He’s the leader of the free world.”
Benioff added: “When the commander-in-chief says, ‘I want to see advanced episodes,’ what are you gonna do?”
Fair’s fair, right?
Not to Vanessa Golembewski of Refinery29. And the plot she hatched is incredible:
“I decided this was a perfect opportunity to test the limits of the Freedom of Information Act. If the president — and by extension, our government — is in possession of a file, surely that file is subject to my request to see it as a U.S. citizen.”
This is amazing! One of the instrumental tools of American journalism is being used to try to get an advance copy of the show, and the really amazing part is that if it works, the screeners will theoretically be exempt from piracy laws. In other words, Golembewski could share them far and wide without threat of legal punishment, since they were legally obtained as items of journalistic interest under FOIA. It’s a potential game-changer—at the very least, it could force TV shows to say “no” to sitting presidents who request advance episodes, for fear of compromising the entire show.
Now, as Golembewski notes, this is a “stretch.” Does FOIA actually apply to a television show? Who knows? Also, there’s very little chance that she’ll get a response ahead of the premiere, or even in time for future episodes before they air. Still, you should really read the story and experience her speculative journalistic journey in its full glory. Whether it succeeds or not, I say Golembewski is an American hero.